That evening, Li Shaojie returned home feeling dejected.
Old Wei from their office, whose wife sells meat at a grocery store, used to bring braised pork with him. When they shared it in the office, he'd say he ate a lot when he was younger, and he'd always give himself an extra piece.
Today, he acted as if he didn't even see me. He didn't even give me any points.
It wasn't that he was craving the meat; it was just that everyone in the office was talking about how sweet the meat Old Wei's wife had made that day was, and he was sitting there like a fool, eating dry bread with pickled vegetables. He felt indescribably miserable.
In the afternoon, Director Zhou sent someone to inform him that he wanted to talk to him. He was busy at the time, and he originally planned to find someone to cover for him and go to Director Zhou's place first, as he usually did.
After searching around, he found that some people politely told him they had something to do, while others ignored him completely and left without a word. It was as if speaking even a single word to him would tarnish their reputation.
When he finished his work and rushed to Director Zhou's office, Director Zhou's face was extremely unpleasant.
He used to be Du Junsheng's son-in-law, and not to mention his colleagues, even Director Zhou always spoke to him politely. Unlike now, he gives him the cold shoulder at the drop of a hat.
Li Shaojie listlessly picked at the tofu in his bowl with his chopsticks. There wasn't a speck of oil in it, let alone any meat. "Yujie gave me money the other day, didn't she even mention buying some meat?"
Li Shaojie slammed his chopsticks on the table. "How can we eat this kind of food every day?"
"Money, money, money! Xiao Yujie gave us money, but don't you think about how much money we have to contribute to the hospital and the rent? We need to save this money! Besides, we need ration coupons to buy meat! We asked you to ask your colleagues to help us buy some meat, but you couldn't bring yourself to do it. The family is already in such dire straits, and you still have the nerve to be picky."
He won't listen to anything I say, ruined a perfectly good marriage, and now he's being willful again. Li Guodong has a lot of complaints about his son now.
Li Shaojie ignored his complaints and retorted, "No money, no money, you always say you have no money. If you have no money, go find some work. I'm the only one earning money to support four people, how can I afford it? Your household registration isn't here, and you don't have any food ration coupons. If you really can't find work, you might as well go home."
In the village, he was literate and could do math, but when he got to the city, he realized that people could tell he was from the countryside just by looking at him, and there were no good jobs for him. Li Guodong wouldn't do physically demanding jobs like carrying goods or delivering goods in the village, and he was even less inclined to do them in the city.
Hearing his son belittling him like this, Li Guodong got angry. "Isn't this all your own doing? You said you wanted to stay at the school and marry your teacher's daughter. What did I tell you at home? I told you to be careful no matter what, to win her over first. We'd talk about it after you got the money and everything was settled. But you've been blinded by greed."
Li Guodong glanced at Li Yumei, "You just have to make trouble, you just have to make trouble. You'll make something of it."
"Let me tell you, since you've decided on Xiao Yujie, you should hurry up and get me the divorce certificate."
Li Guodong was sitting in a spot with a direct view of the courtyard, and he immediately noticed the gate shake slightly. He guessed someone had come in, and figured it was probably no stranger. So he deliberately said it so the people outside could hear.
“That Yujie, she only has you in her heart. She even had such a big fight with her mother because of you the other day. It’s really not easy for her. She even said she would find jobs for our family. Once we all have jobs, our family will have money. You should hurry up and get the divorce certificate, cut ties with the Du family, and marry Yujie as soon as possible.”
His father had been bringing up the divorce certificate every day for the past two days. Li Shaojie was fed up with it and said irritably, "Even if I get the certificate, we can't get married now. That would just confirm that something's really going on between us. Let's wait and see."
Li Guodong knew all too well that once the money was in his son's hands, it would be difficult to get it back. That's why he hadn't told his son about getting the divorce certificate and thus receiving the wedding gift money. Hearing Li Shaojie's further delays, Li Guodong no longer cared that Xiao Yujie was still outside.
"Then get the divorce certificate first. Even if we don't get married now, we can at least get a divorce first."
"Why are you in such a hurry to get a divorce if you're not even getting married?" Li Shaojie glared at him and stubbornly retorted.
He felt he couldn't reason with his father at all. He knew how difficult things were for him at the academy. Ever since Xu Keke left, he'd been ostracized by all his colleagues. And this was only now, with Du Junsheng not around; he didn't even want to think about it until Du Junsheng officially returned to work in another two weeks.
Although he didn't know what Director Zhou was planning, he knew it was definitely detrimental to Du Junsheng. If he dared to bring up divorce now, he would ruin Director Zhou's scheme, and Director Zhou could immediately kick him out of the medical school. Right now, besides Director Zhou, no one would protect him.
Of the people in the room, only Li Yumei was secretly delighted by Li Shaojie's words. She felt that Li Shaojie was dragging his feet on the divorce for her sake, because only in this way could he avoid marrying Xiao Yujie.
Seeing that Li Shaojie didn't want to eat, Li Yumei offered, "Brother, I'll fry you a chicken."
As she spoke, she got up and pushed open the door. Just as she was about to go to the kitchen in the yard, she saw someone outside and screamed in fright, "Xiao Yujie, what are you doing here? Why are you eavesdropping on our family's conversation?"
Xiao Yujie would occasionally give them money, so Li Guodong couldn't let Li Yumei offend her. He angrily said to Li Yumei, "What are you yelling about all day? If you continue to be so rude, I won't let your sister Yujie introduce you to any jobs. Let's see if you cry then."
Li Yumei snorted, "She talks like she really has that ability. Let her introduce me to someone first."
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